It Takes a Blink
by CamsthiSky
Summary: It happened the moment Sanji took his eyes off his captain. One minute Luffy was climbing the ladder to board Iceburg's ship, the next, Sanji was holding onto the back of his vest, barely saving the unconscious rubber-brained idiot from taking an unplanned dip in the ocean. This is going to focus little more on Sanji's and Luffy's relationship in the Enies Lobby arc.
1. Chapter 1

**This totally could've gone into _And on and on we go_ , but I'm hoping to add at least two more parts to this. It (sorta) has a plot to it, but this is kinda the intro to it all.**

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It happened the moment Sanji took his eyes off his captain. One minute Luffy was climbing the ladder to board Iceburg's ship, the next, Sanji was holding onto the back of his vest, barely saving the unconscious rubber-brained idiot from taking an unplanned dip in the ocean.

Franky, who had climbed ahead of the both of them, peered of the railing, probably hearing the grunt Sanji let slip out as he caught him—and it wasn't that Luffy was heavy. On the contrary, Luffy's rubbed body weighed very little compared to that of a normal human being, but the whole thing had been just so unexpected that it had taken all of Sanji's reflexes to catch the falling boy.

"What happened?" Franky asked, catching sigh of Luffy dangling above the open ocean.

Sanji let out a large exhale. "It started raining idiots," the cook muttered, hefting Luffy up to get a better grip on him. Franky had to help him, but eventually, Sanji got Luffy to the deck with minimal hassle, and Luffy didn't even stir the entire time.

Chopper came rushing over (Robin carried him and set him down next to Luffy, actually, but Chopper was pretty frantic at the sight of him) and immediately began to check him over, fussing over him the way only the Straw Hat doctor could—with snot, tears, and extreme care and precision.

Sanji took a drag from his cigarette. "He doing alright?" the cook asked, because this was Luffy, and as much of a moron as the little shit could be, he was still the man Sanji'd chosen to follow out to sea. There was no way he wouldn't be worried. Especially after just collapsing like that.

Then again, Luffy wasn't the type to keel over until he had done everything he wanted to do, which apparently wasn't boarding Iceberg's ship since he lost consciousness halfway up, but Sanji definitely gave him points for staying awake this long. Out of the entire crew, it had been Luffy who'd sustained the most damage.

"With injuries like that, could you truly call this a win against Lucci?" Iceburg finally asked after several moments of uncharacteristic silence from the Straw Hats—Usopp wasn't on the deck, but after the bridge they just burned, Sanji would've been more surprised if he was. Iceberg continued, "From what I'm told, they basically beat each other until neither could move. How is that a win?"

The moss head was the first to bark a laugh from where he was leaning against the railing. "Oh, it was a win alright. The only real goal was to get Robin back, and we got her back. So mission accomplished."

"I'm so glad." Nami was still crying, silent tears streaming down her cheeks, shoulders shaking. As much as Sanji wished he could go over there and comfort her, the navigator was holding onto Robin's sleeve—for support or in fear of losing her again, Sanji didn't know—and there was no way in hell he was going to tear her away. "I'm so, _so_ glad we got you back. Welcome back."

Robin just smiled. A genuine smile that Sanji honestly could not remember ever seeing on her face before. It almost mirrored one of Luffy's bright grins that caused blindness if directly looked at for more than ten seconds.

So Sanji looked away, eyes traveling back to his captain and Chopper, who had just finished mummifying Luffy was starting to pack away his medical supplies.

"What's the word, Chopper?" Sanji asked after another puff of his cigarette. "Good or bad?"

Chopper looked…not bad, but thoughtful, like he was trying to figure something out, and honestly, that had Sanji more on edge than anything. The last thing they needed was something else added to their full plates. Sanji was about done with Luffy throwing curveballs in their faces for the day. And the kid wasn't even conscious.

"Chopper? What is it?" Zoro stepped in when the reindeer was silent a beat too long. "What's wrong with him?"

Sighing, Chopper looked up at all of them. "He's exhausted, and slightly emaciated by the looks of it. His blood sugar's dangerously low, he's dehydrated, and he's lost a lot of blood. I've cleaned the wounds out to avoid infection, and all I think he really needs at this point is lots of rest, water, and food to restore his energy."

"I'm sensing a 'but'," Sanji said. "Is there something else that's wrong with him?"

"It's hard to explain," Chopper murmured. "But it's nothing I can figure out for sure unless I ask him directly, though. And nothing I can treat by anything other than prevention."

Zoro sighed. "Well, in any case, we better start preparing ourselves. You know what's going to happen once he wakes up, right?"

Sanji and Nami groaned at the same time that Robin and Chopper giggled.

"Party!" Chopper yelled enthusiastically, Luffy puzzle seemingly gone from his mind. He turned to Sanji, eyes bright and enthusiastic, and the chef couldn't help but let his expression soften just a touch. "Sanji! Sanji! Can you make some amazing party food! Good food is just what the doctor order for everyone to get better!"

"Only as soon as the shitty captain wakes up from his nap." Sanji chuckled. "But I suppose that I could whip up something of a breakfast for everyone else when we get back to the hotel. How does that sound?"

Chopper cheered and Sanji felt his face stretch into a grin. Sometimes, moments like this were his favorite. As long as his crew enjoyed his food and let it fill their bellies, Sanji's day was made.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanji was by Luffy's bed again, and he didn't even know why.

It hadn't even been a day since Iceberg's ship had brought them back to Water 7. The mayor had given them refuge in a nice company building with nice bunk beds, and the crew had spent the rest of the day after the battle sleeping off their exhaustion and injuries. Most of the crew was awake now, and since it was still light out, most of the crew wanted to explore Dock 1 a little-aka Chopper, who didn't want to go alone so he asked Nami and Robin to go with him. Sanji would have gone with them too, but despite himself, he wasn't feeling all that up to it.

So here he was, sitting next to Luffy's bedside like it was going to an ounce of good. The captain was still sleeping, not begging for food, so it should've been the perfect opportunity for Sanji to relax. Especially with Zoro snoozing away on the top bunk.

But it all felt wrong. It was like his world had gone full tilt and he was barely managing to hang on, because Luffy was _hurt_ , in a way he didn't often get. The only time Sanji had seen Luffy this bad was after the fight with Crocodile.

Luffy was barely moving, and when he did, his brow would wrinkle and Sanji could clearly see the pain on his face. The only plus side was that he didn't have a fever.

"Sanji?"

The cook blinked down at the subject of his thoughts, catching his breath in surprise when two dark, exhausted eyes stared back at him in the gloom-just 'cause the sun hadn't finished setting didn't mean that it wasn't getting dark.

"Luffy," Sanji huffed. "You should be sleeping."

"I'm hungry," Luffy rasped out.

Sanji prepared himself to get up. "We finished dinner a little while ago, but there's still some left."

"I don't wanna move."

Sanji inhaled through his nose. This was difficult. This was always the most difficult part in his opinion. In Alabasta, it had taken three days for Luffy to feel well enough to eat anything. And during those three days, there had been nothing Sanji could really do besides force feed the captain liquids until he could get anything heavier to stay down.

Now, Luffy couldn't get himself to move and stay awake long enough to get something in his stomach. And Sanji couldn't stand it. He hated to stand by and watch his captain look like this, act like this. It just made him feel so...helpless.

"I can bring it to you," Sanji suggested, and was proud when his voice didn't shake. "There's some chicken soup left that won't be too hard on your stomach."

Sanji was prepared to go into full on begging mode at this point. He couldn't remember the last time Luffy ate, but it had to be before the duel he'd had with Usopp. Luffy had lost his appetite in the face of losing Usopp and not being able to find Robin, and then they just didn't have any _time_ to eat once they got word that they needed to head out to Enies Lobby after their friend. And now Luffy couldn't move, and he had to be starving. Chopper had even said that Luffy was slightly _emaciated_. Sanji couldn't deal with that.

But Luffy nodded and Sanji let out the breath he hadn't remembered holding. Taking the chicken soup from the table and grabbing a spoon, Sanji turned on the stove to warm it up a bit. Then he propped Luffy up so he wouldn't choke. Once the soup was done, he sat down on the edge of Luffy's bed and filled the spoon with broth.

"Here, Luffy," Sanji prodded, bringing the spoon to his captain's lips. Luffy opened up without even opening his eyes, and Sanji stuck the spoon in, watchful eyes waiting until Luffy swallowed to take out the spoon and feed him another bite, this time with a piece of chicken.

It was slow-going at first. Sometimes Sanji had to shake Luffy from his dozing to swallow another mouthful, but eventually they got through the whole bowl.

"That was good," Sanji heard Luffy mutter sleepily.

Sanji smiled. That was all he could hope for. "Get some sleep, Luffy," he said.

But it wasn't really needed. Luffy was already snoring away.

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 **Whoops. I meant to post this morning. If you're following me on tumblr, I said I'd have this out by Sunday, and here it is! And it's only 7:30 PM my time. I did it! In other news, my computer is glitching again so I'm not sure when I'm going to update again. But! Good news, this is actually going to be more than three chapters long! It's looking more like four or five. So yeah. Let me know what you thought!**


	3. Chapter 3

**It's...been a while. Sorry. I started school and things got crazy. I'm going to be honest, this chapter was a pain to write (although I loved how it turned out). It took several rewrites, and it's not as long as I had hoped it would. I do hope you enjoy it still. Also, I'm thinking about doing another one of these, maybe a little series that focuses on Sanji and Luffy in another arc. Would you guys enjoy that? And if not, feel free to suggest which of the crew you'd like me to write!**

 **The fourth chapter should be out fairly quickly, since I already have half of it written. Thanks for all your reviews. Even though I didn't get a chance to reply to them, I really did enjoy them, and they kept me motivated through this long break.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Luffy was dreaming. At least, he thought he was dreaming. Everything was all jumbled and there was a very real sense of _missing_ that didn't make much sit right alongside the feeling of pure relief that shook him to his very bones.

Plus, there wasn't any meat.

It was probably a nightmare. His good dreams usually had meat in them _somewhere_ , and the gnawing hunger in his stomach was enough to tell him that this wasn't a good dream, even if he couldn't quite hold onto anything that was flashing through his mind for longer than a few moments.

" _Luffy?"_

That was Sanji. But why was Sanji in his dream? Did he know about Luffy's meat problem? That would make sense, right? Sanji was a cook, after all. _His_ cook. Surely Sanji was here to help.

" _Luffy, you need to wake up or else you won't be able to eat."_

Of course, Luffy needed to eat. He was _starving_. The only problem was that he wasn't sure how to get out of his meatless dream. Everything was still jumbled together and Luffy didn't see a door anywhere.

" _Sanji? Is everything okay?"_

" _Luffy's not waking up."_

" _What?! Is he okay? You said he woke up earlier!"_

" _Calm down, Chopper. Just check him over before you freak out."_

" _Oh…. You're right. Sorry. It's just…."_

" _Yeah, you're worried. I know the feeling."_

"… _Sanji?"_

" _What is it?"_

" _Are you alright? You look kind of pale. Have you eaten enough?"_

 _That_ had Luffy deciding to screw the door. He'd punch his way out of his own dream if he had to. He didn't understand why Sanji wouldn't be feeling okay, but if Luffy was sleeping then there wasn't a damned thing he could do about it. So now he just had to wake up.

He struggled, but eventually, the dream faded away, the jumbled mess washing away until he couldn't even remember a thing about it anymore. It took a moment, but he was finally able to unstick his eyelids and pry his eyes open. He stared at the blurry slats of the bunk bed above him without comprehension. He didn't know where he was, he realized, but he didn't bother trying to figure it out. Instead, he turned his head to look for his crew.

They weren't looking at him, but it was Chopper and Sanji that were in the room, sitting next to the bed Luffy was laid up in. Chopper looked worried, but Sanji had a soft smile on his face that he usually only reserved for the times everyone complimented his cooking. It was a good smile, one that Luffy wished he could see more of.

"I'm alright," Sanji said, patting Chopper's hat. "Just worried about our black hole not being able to eat anything."

Luffy's stomach took that moment to growl loudly in protest. Both Sanji and Chopper turned to look at Luffy.

"Luffy! You're awake!" Chopper hopped up on the bed, the doctor gently fussing over the bleary captain. "How're you feeling? Is any area bothering you? Can you move? Are you still sleepy?"

Luffy just blinked at the onslaught of questions before meeting Sanji's calculating gaze. "Meat," he whined. He was so hungry it felt like his stomach was eating itself whole. "Sanji…."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." Even though he sounded disgruntle, there was a relief in Sanji's expression that kept his features soft and warm. And when he held up the spoon with soup, it was with a gentleness that Luffy wasn't sure he'd experienced before when it came to Sanji. "Open up."

Luffy's eyelids drooped, but he opened his mouth anyways, slurping down the soup each time the spoon nudged at his lips.

" _Wait, did he fall back asleep?"_

" _Yeah, I can't really say I'm surprised on that one. He still looks completely worn out."_

" _Yeah…but he's still eating, Sanji! That shouldn't be possible."_

" _It's Luffy. If he wants to sleep and eat at the same time, then I guess there's really no stopping him."_

"… _You look a lot happier."_

" _Yeah. I guess I am."_

The meat was back. It was a good dream, this time. Almost everything was right in the world.

Except for that sense of something missing, but Luffy had a feeling that it would sort itself out sooner or later. For now, he was going to enjoy his meat.

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 **Please let me know what you thought in a review! Thanks for everything friends, and hopefully I'll be posting fairly soon!**


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